Happy 2014 and welcome to the first book discussion of the year! This month we read and discuss The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, who primarily writes Victorian and Suspense fiction. Her books are rich in period detail and painstakingly researched to bring alive an era that is complex and contradictory to say the least. From Tipping the Velvet, to Affinity, to Fingersmith, her novels are dark, lush and rich with intriguing characters and situations. The Little Stranger is set in 1940s post-war rural Britain and was shortlisted as a finalist for the Man Booker Prize in 2009.

Praise for The Little Stranger:

"Waters creates an atmosphere of quiet dread that's unnerving and compelling." Time

"A marvelous and truly spooky historical novel." The Boston Globe

"... Sarah Waters is an excellent, evocative writer, and this is an incredibly gripping and readable novel." The New York Times Book Review

Glowing reviews aside, the book is a compelling read and I hope you will join me for the next four weeks as we read and discover it together! I will post my first set of questions early next week and hopefully those will generate discussion and debate. Until then, let's start our story with Dr. Faraday's description of his first visit to Hundreds Hall and, thirty years later, his second visit under very different circumstance. Bon voyage!